I'm going to be reinstalling Windows XP in my XPS410/9200 soon in preparation of hunkering down for the winter and I wish to remove RAID at the same time. I believe this will reduce boot-up time by the RAID splash screen not appearing.
I was able to find plenty of info on how to install RAID by using the F6 key and the BIOS for the OS and RAID installation; however, I was not able to find any info on how to remove RAID.
I only have 2 Gigs of personal files and everything else is on a CD ready for re-installation if necessary. I use the PC for video gaming and for better performance I have not been using RAID. I have 2 hard drives which are currently set up as Basic disks. I simply keep a copy of my 2 Gigs of personal data on the other hard drive for back up.
I'm looking forward to any help and/or comments you provide.
Back in 2006 my XPS410 was originally set up with RAID 1, the mirror hard drive set up, which is when one hard drive is an exact copy (mirror) of the other hard drive. The 2 disks were changed to a Non-RAID disk configuration in 2007 making them independent of one another. I also have multiple partitions on each drive now, so defragging takes a minimal time and also makes it super easy to reinstall the OS every six months. I love the high speed performance of a crisp new install. And by keeping the OS in one partition and my personal files in another just makes things so easy!
So for the last 2 years I've been seeing the RAID splash screen prior to Window's splash screen. It shows that I have 2 Non-RAID drives. I haven't done anything with it but after 2 years of not using RAID I decided I may as well delete it to save time at boot up. If I want to use a RAID set-up again, I believe I should be able to re-install RAID controller/drivers (if necessary) at the OS install time by using the F6 key like you mentioned above.
Thanks for your help and links, they will be put to good use.
DCX4EVER
288 Posts
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Posted December 3rd, 2009 11:00
Here is your manual which contains all your info http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps410/en/OM_EN/YH251A02.pdf. Just to clarify the procedure anyway: enter your bios and under drives, sata operation, raid is off. Save info and reboot to optical drive and reload op system.